My Morning Jacket - 'Evil Urges'

Tracklisting:

1. Evil Urges
2. Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 1
3.Highly Suspicious
4. I'm Amazed
5. Thank You Too
6. Sec Walkin'
7. Two Halves
8. Librarian
9. Look at You
10. Aluminum Park
11. Remnants
12. Smokin From Shootin
13. Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Part 2
14. Good Intentions

Look for the NPR show on SXSW - smokin'!

Indeed. I'm Amazed is particularly great.

"Smokin' From Shootin'" is my fave from the new ones so far.

release date?

June something

album cover:

http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/47771.MMJ_EvilUrgesnews.jpg

(thanks pfrk)

my thoughts:

UGH :(

Is it from a cut scene from Bioshock?

i don't hate it

yeah, why is that bad?

Photoshop Lesson #4: Fun with layers!

This has leaked, fair to say it's gonna polarize fans

i would be into hearing this

lol highly suspicions wtf

The title track is posted online, there's a link on pitchfork. Great great song.

I'm not a fan but the new track is AWFUL. Like four trillion times worse than anything else they've ever done.

i heard "highly suspicious" the other day and assumed the band had lost their fucking minds. it sounds like inxs meets the black crowes.

however, "touch me" actually didn't sound too bad, once i settled into jim james' voice on it.

what a strange, leftfield record.

they play "Touch Me" all the time on indie 103.1 out here in Los Angeles. great song by a great band, haven't played album leak so i'm looking very forward to this record.

i am really enjoying this, espesh 'i'm amazed' and, uh, yeah, 'highly suspicious'

I'm seeing them in September in Berkeley despite this record. I love the first three albums that much.

I'm seeing them in September in Berkeley despite this record. I love the first three albums that much.

"By first three" does that mean you didn't like Z, either? Evil Urges strikes me so far as an extension of Z, but with a deeper dive into the soul-disco leanings they've hinted at in small ways before (like on the Chocolate and Ice EP). It's an odd record, but not the out-of-left-field departure it's been described as so far - to me there's about the same degree of change between each of the albums (with a slightly steeper change curve with the last two albums). The big change here is Jim James' singing, especially on the first three tracks, where he doesn't "sound like himself", meaning sound like he usually sounds. I've only listened to Evil Urges a few times so far, but I'm loving it. Some gorgeous melodies on the slower numbers ("Smokin From Shootin", "Thank You Too!"), and tight band playing throughout.

This is getting some (expectedly) brutal reviews, but I quite enjoy it.

It's an odd record, but not the out-of-left-field departure it's been described as so far

I've had it for about a week now, have listened to it once or twice every day since, and finally it has started to settle in enough for me to look at it somewhat objectively: The big WTF moments come in the first three tracks, climaxing with "Highly Suspicious" - which might as well be renamed "Highly Conspicuous," because it is really the only track here that keeps the record as a whole from being a natural extension of what they were doing on Z, that being the further toning down of "the reverb" and the further exploration of soul, reggae, a little krautrock here and there etc. But because the record is so frontloaded with jarring genre-bending, many critics and others have responded in kind by crying "this isn't the band I used to like." Live with the record for a while, though, and all that will settle in and smooth out. It is a grower and worth the effort, especially if you liked Z.

Aside from Highly Suspicious -- which isn't "bad," just totally not right for this band -- I think Evil Urges is a very good album.(n.1) And it's looser than anything they've done before, without dulling their rock edge at all. The bad reviews are undeserved.

________________________________
(n.1) It also doesn't highlight Jim James voice as well as it could, but that's a minor complaint overall.

"highly suspicious" reminds me of elastica's "connection." when i first heard it, i thought it was a sly joke, playing on elastica ripping off wire. i know it wouldn't be a terribly funny joke, but the message would be something about how rock music is totally referential, and decidedly non-authentic, so if you're looking for an "authentic" my morning jacket record, this ain't it. i should add that i was drinking when i first listened to the album

This is getting some (expectedly) brutal reviews. the only decent ones i've read so far are the onion's and mojo's. pitchfork's seemed particularly mean-spirited, given their raving about fleet foxes, who sound just like mmj-lite to me. i'm most surprised by the "librarian" putdowns. that's a sweet song!

if Z was their Soft Bulletin, then this record is their At War With The Mystics. don't really dig it.

Can't even believe people like this band

What a hack

i wouldn't be much into them if it weren't for seeing them open up for guided by voices a ways back. i had no idea who they were. that performance was probably the best one by an opening band i'd never heard of. also, z is a fine album, the closest they've come to being that band i saw way back when

pitchfork's seemed particularly mean-spirited

Pitchfork's never liked MMJ. They were one of the few review sites to give Z a sub-par rating, and I think it only barely made their year-end Top 50 Albums (if it did at all).

The reviews for Evil Urges have been all over the place. Rolling Stone and some other old-media publications gave it very high marks, while some new-media (Pitchfork/Popmatters) gave it very low marks. Semi-surprising to me.

Pitchfork's never liked MMJ.

The Tennessee Fire - 8.0
At Dawn - 7.1
Chocolate and Ice EP - 7.3
It Still Moves - 8.3
Acoustic Citsuoca EP - 7.5
Z - 7.6
Okonokos - 7.2

You sure about that?

Yeah, at least lately. I think Pitchfork's review of Z was one of -- if not the -- lowest ratings that disc received from a major review source. Same for Okonokos (I'm less sure here; I'll check METACRITIC on that one).

Using METACRITIC as a guide, Pitchfork gave Z the fourth lowest rating it received (on 31 reviews), and it gave Okonokos the eighth lowest rating it received (on 21 reviews). Surprisingly, Popmatters gave both discs similarly low ratings (and, of course, they both disliked Evil Urges).

(I had forgotten about the 8.3 for It Still Moves, I admit).

i wouldn't be much into them if it weren't for seeing them open up for guided by voices a ways back. i had no idea who they were. that performance was probably the best one by an opening band i'd never heard of.

hell to the yeah. I saw them for the first time on that tour and it was pretty jaw-dropping in the tiny club they played. I still think At Dawn is the high-water mark and haven't paid a lot of attention since It Still Moves, though. I should probably get caught up on these last two.

They were great at Langerado last year. I guess if you think their live performances stick too closely to the studio-versions of the songs, you won't like them much. To me, the live show let the songs shine (less drenched in feedback) and had a pulsating energy that the recorded tracks don't always have.

so basically, every publication is batshit crazy over them (unjustifiably so, I'd say, for the most part) while Pfork tends to like them to varying degrees without ever falling head over heels (which I'd say is otm).

Pitchfork is entitled not to fall head-over-heels for them. I'm just saying that they don't like them very much relative to the majority of other major music criticism sources I've read or seen.

(And, I admit, METACRITIC may not be a good sampling of the "major music criticism sources." What I've read or seen certainly isn't, I admit).

it's probably the best available, most easily accessible sampling on the web.

Anyway that cover is just about the fugliest thing ever

finally heard this & it's much better than all the middling press it's been getting.

<3 the little ive heard of this so far

Get read of "Highly Suspicious" and "Librarian" (the two worst songs the band has ever done) and you've got a pretty good record.

I can appreciate what they were going for with "Suspicious", but I think they missed the mark by a wide, wide margin.

jesus...
"read" = "rid" obviously

Its Monday, thats my only excuse.

on second listen... a lot of the slower songs on here are dull. i think "Highly Suspicious" is more interesting than most of this record, however "questionable" its aesthetics may be. and i'd much rather hear that one live than, say, any of tracks 5-9.

^^ OTM on HS. It's been in heavy rotation lately as part of my storied "treadmill playlist." Though I'm also a pround Ween fan, so bizarro Prince impressions and indie-hippies-in-disguise don't seem as mutually exclusive to me as logic would dictate.

Revisiting this after happening on to a rerun their contemporary ACL ep Saturday night. My gateway into them and a really awesome album. Although maybe too many slow songs.

"rerun of their"

http://www.mymorningjacket.com/gogo/5-nights-5-albums-terminal-5-new-york-city/

New York City’s Terminal 5 will be presenting a historic five night run of shows in which My Morning Jacket will perform one of their full-length albums in its entirety each night, along with additional songs and covers from each album’s time period. The stint will kick off on Monday, October 18th, with a performance of the 1999 debut The Tennessee Fire, and will be followed chronologically by their next four full length albums, ending with 2008’s Evil Urges on Saturday, October 23rd.

10/18 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – The Tennessee Fire
10/19 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – At Dawn
10/21 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – It Still Moves
10/22 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – Z
10/23 – Terminal 5 – New York City, NY – Evil Urges and beyond!

Tickets for the shows go on pre-sale on June 14th, with 5-show ticket packages available to fans. The individual shows will go on sale to the public on Friday, June 18th.

I like 'Evil Urges'. Polarizing records are always interesting

always digged 'Sec Walkin' don't care much about the rest.